“This is great news," said Rand Hoch, president and founder of the Palm Beach Human Rights Council, which has asked FAU to offer the benefits since the early 2000s. "FAU's Board of Trustees and the United Faculty of Florida are to be commended for reaching an agreement recognizing that employees with domestic partners should be treated in the same manner as spouses."

While these benefits have been standard in the corporate world since the late 1990s, the state has declined to include them in its insurance plan, forcing public colleges and universities to buy supplemental plans.

Only three of the 11 state universities do not offer them now, and they’re all in the more conservative Panhandle area– Florida State University and Florida A&M University in Tallahassee and the University of West Florida in Pensacola.